Interactive: Regions losing out as Australians live longer than ever

Click through the slides above to view changes in death rate over the past decade, and to discover the death rate for your area.

A child entering the world today isn’t expected to leave it
until at least the year 2092, according to the latest insight into how long we
are living.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has today released
the highest life expectancy estimates ever recorded in Australia, with a boy
born today expected to notch up 79.7 years while a girl can be expected to live
to the ripe-old age of 84.2.

A male currently aged 65 can expect to live another 19 years
and female a further 22 years.

The data gives a unique insight into how medical
advancements, rising living standards, better working environments and less
smoking and drinking continues to extend our lives.

But it’s not good news for everyone, with residents in New
South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and South Australia statistically likely to
live several months less than their ACT and Western Australia counterparts.
Newborns in Tasmania could die up to two years younger than the rest of the
country, while the life of the average male in the Northern Territory could be
up to five years shorter.

Residents in country towns and cities are also expected to
have shorter lives than capital-city dwellers.

Over the past decade, the overall average life expectancy
has grown nearly three years for men and just over two years for women, said
ABS director of demography Bjorn Jarvis.

“Comparatively, Australia is doing really well,” Mr Jarvis
said.

“Our male and female combined life expectancy figure of 81.4
years is higher than the rate in the UK, Canada, New Zealand and the USA.”

However, other data released by the ABS today has pointed to
entrenched disadvantage in rural and regional Australia, where the number of
deaths for every 1000 people is higher than capital cities.

In NSW, the death rate is higher in the Bourke, Brewarrina,
Wellington and Central Darling local government areas, where social
disadvantage and the Indigenous population is high. In Victoria, the worst
areas are Ararat, Central Goldfields and Nurrindindi.

In Queensland’s poverty-stricken Aurukun community, 27 out
of every 1000 residents died in 2011.

The national average was 5.6 deaths per 1000 people.

There were a record-high 146,900 deaths registered in
Australia last year.